Bin cake

My dad's birthday was approaching, and we'd already baked the obvious choices. My big bro had, in the past few years, whipped up an excellent bottle of (cake) Beaujolais and grapes, and a cryptic crossword, for my dad never fails to complete The Times' Saturday tough one each week.  

Still, I can see why a bin - albeit a recycling one - might not seem like the obvious option for a cake. 

But my dad is obsessive about ensuring the various boxes are all put out on time, and I thought a recycling bin would be a fun cake to make, particularly with the addition of tiny newspaper copies of the Evening Standard, full of stories all about my dad (and a photoshopped splash pic of him too, of course).

Searching for bin cake inspiration online wasn't that fruitful...  There were great ones, but they looked too tough to replicate:

So I decided to go for a simple round cake (which was hoovered up within 24 hours, so I recommend Nigella's Old Fashioned Chocolate Cake again, particularly the amazing icing) with a fondant black bin on top. I made a recycling sign...

Then I layered a little tissue paper at the bottom to fill it up.

Then, I have to admit, I cheated a little with tools: my colleague Bev had a bottle mould, so I mixed up some chocolate-and-food-colouring combos and whipped up some bottles. I also added some cola bottles to the mix.

For the tiny newspapers, my job helped a fair amount.. Since I work at the Evening Standard, a couple of excellent colleagues helped me use InDesign to whip up this a front page. But there are lots of sites including this one that helps make genuine-looking newspaper clippings. 

This is the result.